Archive for category God
The Pillars are Falling
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Family, God, Life, Love, Relationships on April 26, 2018
I have been here for a long long time. My world was held up by the characters and the living forms around me. I felt safe with my environment always there for me when I needed something solid to lean on. Its crumbling away. There is no one to support me, there is no one to talk to anymore. I have to become that which is crumbling around me, the pillar. Many lights have fizzled out, it feels so dark. But I realize that the light was not them, it was not the people, but it was God at work in them showing through. That is what I loved, that is what caught my eyes, that is what attracted me to value them. The light is not gone, it is kept, and it is time to be lit up, to have God in me filling me so much, that others can look at me and find something worth something. Something beautiful, even if they don’t know what it is until I am gone some day hopefully at its rightful time long into the future.
Its time to change, perhaps mourning is part of it. I can’t live without the light, but the Light needs to fill me. I say that “God didn’t make us to be puppets”, but today I stand as one who is little to nothing without God filling me. Its Ironic, or is it. Not puppets but nothing without my maker, my God, like a person and his heart, one is nothing without the other.
I don’t get to tell my dad about things anymore, he won’t get to see Serena grow up. Serena won’t know him. It was part of the plan that he would be here when we moved here. Plans change. Now I get to work out what life will look like without him. Pick up the pieces, and make something of it, not what I expected, but something good, it has to be something good.
I no longer get to talk to my closest human friend about spiritual things, bowels and poop, movies, music, or life. Larry I miss you. I wish I could share life with you even now. I wish. Who could ever fill that hole, I can’t imagine. The last unicorn, is there anyone left on this earth like you? Truly unimaginably darker now that light is gone. You shown through him Lord, there has got to be more. I need there to be more like him.
Ed, the last of 2 lights that shown like the sun in College Place. Old and precious. You righted many wrongs in more ways than you know. Murial, you died laughing, how wonderful, but how sad for all who knew you. Ed, a giant in a small frail old man’s body, sharp as a sword, beautiful, and shining with love! Truly you both have met Christ, how else could you be so much like Him. I had hoped to introduce my daughter to you, to show you the life that you were an important part of.
Grandma, holy hell, what can I say. Your prayers kept Jesus on His toes, to jump at any chance, any opening I gave. And not just me, so so many prayers for family, and who did you not consider family. I am who I am today by your prayers. A shell of a person, finally left an opening, and I am a new man, 10 years later, nearly back where it all started, but with a wife, daughter, job, and a relationship with God, because of your constant prayers. There is no replacing that! How does the world even turn anymore! Surly when you finally closed your eyes, we all should have been snuffed out, but by God’s graces we remain.
My friend, my neighbor, you were there from when I was in high school. Always so kind and loving. I know of no other neighbor like you. God gives us a window, and sometimes we don’t take it, and the opportunity passes. I hope you know how much we loved you, even though we missed the window. Your children and their friends remain as a testament to who you were and your character.
Why Be A Bible Thumper When God Is Active Today
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, Family, God, Life, Love, Philosophy, Relationships, Values on November 28, 2016
I was thinking the other night about my daughter, and how I could reflect that God is relevant today in everyday life. When I was growing up, hell, into my 20s, I didn’t read the bible and most of the described events in there, that I have heard from various sources surrounding me, were very hard to relate to today, to the struggles we deal with just trying to survive in this society, bent on rich people getting richer on the backs of the poor most of all, and then the middle class. Today I can see some major similarities, some relevancy that I have never seen before, but that was only due to the insightful people I have been exposed to, and the research I have done. I will do my best not to get off on a rant about legal tender, and the hording of it, using government as a tool so that those with it get to keep more of it than those without. Regardless of what I see today that I didn’t when I was younger, how can I relate to my daughter how God fits into:
- Being different than everyone around you.
- How to make friends.
- Where to find the right people to surround yourself with.
- How to get a job in a tough market with an inadequate skill set and education.
- How to find the right person to spend your life with.
- Then, how to actually spend your life with a person you live with for the rest of your life.
- How to tell when it is time to leave, a job, an abusive situation, a community.
- How to find a way to stay when things are tough, and why.
- What kind of car to buy and why.
- A reason to live.
- How to deal with debt, and what it really is.
- How people work, their motivations, and how it makes everything in society predictable and sad.
- How to keep on going when you know how broken society is.
- How to deal with difficult people.
- How to actually forgive someone.
- Why to forgive someone.
- What is love.
LOL, as if I could list all the things. But the list goes on and on, and every human needs to learn how to live, and every one of these elements fits in, and God fits into every one of these elements. I have heard from people this sad misunderstanding where they say “God doesn’t really fit in to taking care of my family, making ends meet” extremely paraphrased of course, but the idea is clear, they could not fathom how God fit into everything it takes to live today. Like finances, you can bible thump a lot of verses out about that, and not that they are worthless, but the societal gap, the lack of understanding of how things were then and how things are now, and how they were very similar, really kills the application of the bible to today. Subject after subject, you will fail to relate, so much lost in translation, and not just in translation of language, but translation of the situations that were in play then, and the same damn thing happening in one form or another today. David was right, there is truly nothing new under the sun, but starting out in your understanding and if you are lucky, study, none of it hits home.
As a father, I can’t help but revisit how it was when I was young. I still don’t know how I can help a young person see and believe that it is real. As a young boy, I was a hard case, one even today I would not know how to crack. Sometimes I wonder if the best thing we can do is raise them as close to how you want them to be, and pray. However, I worry about being just another “Christian” family that makes a little atheist because we paint and live such a hypocritical life, oh Lord, let us not live a hypocritical life. I believe that all atheists are in one form or another the fault of God believing people being terrible in the name of God, or while living under His name as “Christians”, okay I am getting off topic.
So, to summarize, I have come to the conclusion that the bible is good, but only after seeking God with all your heart and having Him guide you through it, otherwise it can be used as a tool of evil, just remember, even Satan used it for evil, and still does. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. I think something that may help relate to a young person who God is, and what He wants for us, is to write down the statistically anomalous events in our lives where God clearly pulled some strings. Not to discourage described events from the bible, but without described events from a little more recent time, it will be very hard to relate. One day I want my little girl to recall a story of where we had no food and no money, and the very day we prayed, out of nowhere people were cleaning out their pantries, and started to show up with boxes of food, and I want her to pray, and see what happens. I know my Friend, He will not disappoint a humble prayer, from a pure honest heart, who seeks Him, with all of their strength. Or I want her to look back, when she finds herself in a hard place with work, to recall daddy telling about how he just could not make it, there was no way to get out of debt, and prayed, and within a month was being paid nearly 3 times as much in a new job.
Heh, “doesn’t really fit into life”, that is really missing the mark. The wife I have, the home I have, the car I have, the child I have, the health I have, the fact that I am alive here today, only because of God. I have experienced how He really does fit into life, in every way. Its not simple, its not easy, it takes work in prayer, study, choice, belief, and action. You can’t con God, He is a *person, and I wouldn’t expect Him to respond to someone being a shit saying “prove you exist” (I did that once, didn’t work), but He will respond to someone who humbly believes in Him and calls on Him, asking some of the simplest of life’s questions. Many would say to that “how convenient”, and I would say “yup, deal with it, it is His choice, what would you do if for thousands of years you have interacted with your creation, and then a generation decides to discount a portion of written history for all kinds of reasons, and someone who still believes asked for help, and one who doesn’t believe asks for you to prove yourself again, who would you rather respond to?”. I can’t presume to speak for God, but I can say it seems fair at this point in history to let people believe what they want to believe, and respond to those who believe and call on Him. From my perspective, God has nothing to prove, at least not to me or mankind, He has done so quite enough in history.
I am so glad God is in charge of all that. I am not equipped for His job. The story is never quite as simple as I put it, I classically, at least part of me, wishes it were. Frankly I took the long way around, as I put it, I had to hit some walls before I even thought to ask God about any of those line items. Terrible relationships, before I finally asked Him to take care of that, but I was fine being single, ether way was ok at that point. I ended up going to bars to find friends and such, and I found that doesn’t always end well, and dare I say, from my experience, it has a high statistical probability that it is not going to end well. So I asked where I can find a good woman.
My next blogs will tell those stories, and how God responded.
Why I Believe What I Believe: Introduction
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Philosophy, Values, Why I Believe What I Believe on April 28, 2016
I feel it is time to write down what I believe, and why I believe what I believe. I think that somehow it will be important in the future, and quite often I find that it is an important process in working out thoughts, and even finding misperceptions in beliefs, ideas, or thought processes. Writing also has a nice way of solidifying things in the mind and memory when writing them. If I were to forget for some reason, this is a good way to remind myself as well. Below are the points that I plan to expand on, and for the title, shorten up.
- I believe in the spiritual world.
- I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God
- I believe in creation of the world as it is reflected in the Bible including it’s timeline
- I believe that evil spirits can prophesy about God and truth
- I believe that God limits Himself by the rules He has put in place for free Will’s sake
- I believe God gave us free will
- I believe that the law of free will explains why things happen
- I believe in miracles in the modern day and that God is active with us constantly
- I believe that every prayer is heard and God acts even if we don’t see it
- I believe God talks to us and communicates with us on a regular basis and sometimes we don’t even know it
- I believe Satan is the destroyer and a legalist, the ultimate lawyer and Heaven has been turned into a sort of court room as a result
- I believe the spiritual world has rules and those rules allow for quantifiable things like multiple people praying together having more effect than a single person
- I believe that the closer you are to God the more intense the spiritual and physical world results of stances, decisions, and actions.
- I believe that the 7th day is the Sabbath, and that is Saturday, and I do not believe that God or Jesus ever authorized it to be changed to Sunday
- I believe that Elijah was torn between 2 spirits, the spirit of God, and another spirit at times. The disciples asked if they should call fire down from heaven to consume them, Jesus said, “you do not know by what spirit you are of”. They were referencing the historical acts of Elijah, and I believe that this shows that it is a mistake to assume all the things that the prophets have done are of God, spiritual yes, but of God, not all of it.
- I believe Satan has had a lot more to play in biblical history accounts than we know, reflecting again that the simplistic view of the infallible bible just messes your picture of God up. I believe that all of the fire consuming people acts were from Satan, as a legalistic move due to the seriousness of our close interactions with God. I believe he is allowed to play in an equal access duality as to be legally fair to the legalistic Satan, so a person can be working powerfully for God, and yet be a part of something that is not of God, or even on the other hand call on ungodly powers for wonders.
- I believe that God never intended for the people of Israel to kill their way through the promised land, but it was a concession for their hard hearts, and their war cultured minds.
Free Will and The Spiritual World
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Philosophy on March 18, 2016
There is a wall, some guy built it, in the middle of a field. He willed, he chose to put it there, his will was put into action, and through the effort driven by his will in this world, over time it was built, no matter what his reason was, it is there.
A woman was traveling, and willed to pass through the field. She was reading as she walked and passed by the wall without even noticing it. Her will and the effect of her will in this world did not conflict or intersect in any way the will of the man who built the wall.
Another man was in the same field after the wall was built, mowing the brush down in a riding lawn mower. It was his will to go out that day and mow down the brush, so he put forth the effort to do so. He ran into the wall, it damaged his mower, so he decided to circumvent the wall, and mow around it. His will to mow the entire field was effected by the will of another when all was put into action in this world.
Yet another man was driving through the same field, and he ran into the wall with his vehicle. He got out and looked at the wall and decided he wanted to drive through where the wall was. He got back into the vehicle followed his will to run through the wall, and by his will put into action, and the resulting effort he put it, in very little time, the wall was destroyed. The will of the driver, put into action, over time, overturned the will of another man who built the wall.
God has patterned things in His creation, and in many ways they are harmonious with other realities, and that is why you can look at the properties of what He has created, and get hints at how other hidden realities work. We are free willed creations, and our wills conflict sometimes, and sometimes they do not, and sometimes they don’t even intersect. The strength of these wills, and the action that it creates can cause one person’s will to overturn another person’s will and the effect it had. The hidden worlds I believe this works in is the spiritual world, the world of faith, belief, prayer, and the resulting effect by God’s hand that some may call “super-natural”.
In the spiritual world, I believe the will of the man driving through the field overturned the will of the man who built the wall, even before he ran through it, right when he decided he was going to run through it.
I Don’t Like It Here Sometimes
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Business Ethics, God, Life, Love, Values on September 3, 2015
Some days this world bothers me more than others. Who can stop by a grocery store, gas station, bank, or anything along those lines on a regular basis and not run into someone with a sob story, and illogically they think the best place to get help is at these common areas. I have been a liar, a con artist, and I was wonderful at it. I could convince anyone of anything to get what ever I wanted, and oddly enough, it usually centered around money. I know the game, I can get into it and probably turn on the tears if I needed to. How can I believe any of these people? Like some kids in an Audi saying their wallets were stolen, while one of them is texting on their phone in the car… “We need gas, or money for gas” they say. Each one has a different story, all of them sound so sad. They paint such a heart breaking story about how there is some medical issue they have, or the classic, they are trying to get to the hospital to see their daughter in a different state. Now if that were true, it would be sad.
Now think about this logically, what would you do if you had your wallet stolen? Or what would you do if your daughter was in the hospital? What if you didn’t have a bank account or enough money for a trip? Well, if I didn’t have the money, I would not go. It is that simple. If I had my wallet stolen, I would report it to the police, and call friends and family for help, and start arranging to have what was in my wallet replaced. I can not relate to any other situation, they are all illogical! The places that these people are popping up and playing their sad story is not the place that people should go for help.
I believe there are real issues happening in the world, and some people have no support system, but more often than not, it is due to burning bridges, as sad as that is. It does not mean they should not be helped. But in this world, how can a person discern truth from untruth, when so much is a scam, and any scammer can come up with a better story than the true stories?
On another note, why does this bother me so much? Why do I have it swirling around in my head while I try and sleep? Am I afraid that it was true and they needed help and were just really stupid and illogical about how they handled the situation? Maybe it is the nagging thought that it could be true, despite how illogical.
Lies hurt the world! Never is a single lie resulted in more good than harm! If you think otherwise, then you have not thought hard enough, and far enough! If no one lied (did anything to hide the truth, or anything with an intent to keep truth from being known), then the world would be something that people have not seen before. It is probably unimaginable what a world would look like without lies. Every bad thing in this world comes from a lie, from illness, birth defects, debt, divorce, job loss, no support system, the income gap, injustice, sadly most of the government and its dysfunction, crime, everything.
I don’t belong in this world. I am not sure who or what does, but it feels like a bad joke, and I really don’t like it. I see life, I don’t think it belongs here either, I think it is also prey to this bad joke.
Hard Days, Sleepless Nights
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Health, Life on May 22, 2015
Life has been moving on. Great things have happened! I hold up all that God has done for me as wonderful. A job, a wife, a home, a daughter, time away. However, despite all of that, life still seems worthless. Apart from God and all that He has done, worthless. All this shit that I spend my days doing, worthless! It will all fail, it will all burn. Every bit will fade away and no one will remember, apart from that which was of God.
I tell myself, I have to keep going. I have got to work. We must pay off the debt. Just a little longer, just a little harder. “We just have to keep on going” I say. But do we? Is this the right way? Should it be this hard? Should I be this sick this often? “But we are doing everything right”, I say. Then how can things be this sad. How can I feel so disconnected? Why can I never seem to get enough sleep? Tired, so tired, yet relief seems so far from me.
I hate this world, at least the way it is. All the things I used to love are crap, what is left? God, you have shown me things, things that make this world look so bad. I guess in the dark, you never notice. You could pick up a rock, and not know. You could lay down, and have no idea. You could be content eating your food, doing the things you do. In the dark, you would never know that it was a world of shit. Then the light was turned on, and the dark peels away, and how can you not be disgusted. But after so many years of only knowing the life of crap, how do you change? Where is the abundance of non crap to fill all that you leave behind?
Where are the meaningful things? Where do I go to find them? Who do I talk to, who do I seek? Who knows the things that matter? I want to meet Him, and ask Him some questions. There is only One, but He seems silent, or my ears can not hear. What has happened to my ears? Why does it seem like I am trapped in a pit?
The First Shall Be Last, and The Last Shall Be First
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Relationships, Values on September 13, 2014
The first one to run to the parent when they come home to tell on the other, they are counted as right, regardless of the truth of their story, or rightness of their perspectives. The first one to tell the teacher about something is counted as right, regardless of the truth of what they say, as they may weave untruth, or have heavy biases to suit themselves. Many would perceive he gay community as flamboyant, loud, lisping, and always outgoing, this is not the case, not for all, but how can someone perceive a group of people but by what they hear and see, and they only hear and see the ones that are loud and visible. When in a position of perceived authority, quite often the only people who will come and talk to you are the ones who are having a problem, and so all you hear is the one side, a people already clearly biased to something being perceived as an issue. Are you going to take that as a nice even balanced approach, or should you not logically seek out an exact same number of people not complaining or “concerned” and talk to them about the issue?
We need to know our selves better than this, otherwise we will end up being tools of what ever comes our way, and when the only thing that comes our way is those who already see something as a problem, despite it being a problem or not, what then? When dealing with people, imperfect people, there will be some of each person that is imperfect and broken, and there will be some of that person that is good, and we better see that, because we will be accountable to our reactions and how we handle the situation. We have the power to condemn a person who is seeking the light, and to turn them to darkness by how we respond, we better not forget that! Or we can have hope, and beat things out with God, and He will let us see things as they are, despite the only vocal ones being biased to one direction, because who comes to authority to complain but those with a complaint, while all the others who see good things happening do not speak up, because as the kingdom of this world goes, who goes to the authorities but those seeking power over, and have a complaint.
We need to never forget the example of Jesus Christ, what did He say to Pilate? What did that mean? Who did He say was the Good Shepherd? Who did He say our teacher was? Who girded Himself and washed our feet? His Kingdom is not of this world, it is not like this world, people do not come to an authority figure in His Kingdom so the the authority can control or force about a change or an action overwhelming the will of another. We are not to be like them, that have perceived authority, and lord it over others.
Human Assumtions, Contrary to His Will
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life on July 23, 2014
How often does this happen. I tell you I have seen it time and time again, and now I have stumbled onto this story reflecting that in relation to God and what He says, we have been running this scenario over and over and over, even in the days of Jesus.
Luke 22:36:
And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.”
And now the assumptions:
Luke 22:49-51:
When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.
So where did they, or we, for that matter, go wrong. What did He mean? By human standards, when we are told to arm our selves with swords, aren’t we clearly suppose to use them? Where did we go wrong? Perhaps we just need to be more attentive to what He says, combined with who He is, rather than assuming He means something He did not say. I don’t have the answers, but this happened over and over with regard to God or Jesus speaking, and how humans take it. We not only tend to take things so literally, but we go one step further and then assume what we are to do next after the literal is carried out.
What I do see this saying is that, even when we take things God says, and interpret them wrong, you can trust Him to heal the brokenness we have caused by our assumptions, but we should also take a step back and ask Him to keep us from stepping ahead of Him and doing what He did not say to do. And we need to be more attentive in the future. Perhaps even the body, the church is needed, to help interpret what is being said.
I Finally Understand Why Jesus Had to Die!
Today I was reading through Hebrews, and God showed me something I had been missing. It seemed so simple, but somehow I have been missing this the entire time.
Let me start by explaining how I see the God and Satan thing. I will not get into the big questions that I can not answer such as, why did God allow Satan on earth in any form, ever. Or the question of how can a being created good by God turn evil in the first place. I leave those for God to answer, and I always hold dear the reality, that just because I have a question that I can not answer, it does not mean anything, other than there is a question I have that I do not have an answer for. Some people take that lack of a good explanation, and believe what they want to believe, and say, well I don’t have an answer, so God must be evil for things to be like this. To think that way would be arrogant to the greatest extreme. I believe that I know a little, and in the vast domain of knowledge and understanding that I do not have, in it could exist a perfectly reasonable and moral explanation to these questions.
With that out of the way, I see this earth as a court room, where someone is trying to hold a charge against God’s ways. Satan is the one making the accusation, and at least one of these accusations is against mankind for betraying God, and going against His ways. Satan claims that because they believed him over God in the garden, and time and time again throughout history, that mankind belongs to him and he has dominion over them, like God. Much of this perspective is pulled from the setting laid out in Job, and it seems to fit in such a larger scale, that I suspect that much of the goings on here and in heaven with regard to humans, earth, and Satan, are just like what was revealed in Job. You can find other hints of how God recognizes authorities set up by mankind in Daniel 10. It seems clear that God has set up rules, such as free will (required for the existence of love), and authority, which He will not break or ignore. Mankind, who He originally setup to have dominion over the earth, also has the ability to stet up over them rulers, and by taking Stan’s word over God’s word, we believed God was a liar and what Satan said was true, and thus set him up as our “god”. Satan has since then perpetuated these lies, that God is bad, His ways suck, and that Satan’s ways are the only ways that work, or something like that. It is hard to follow what Satan’s point is, when you know God, because all of his arguments against God just fall apart, especially after Jesus.
On to my point, I understand that by God extending Himself into the human flesh, Jesus, and then giving Himself up, showing what sin does, and at the same time showing His love and forgiveness, that He also fulfilled something powerful in the heavenly court case going on since the beginning. I understood that humans sinning is an offense against God, and that the offended legally can forgive the offense. That made sense. It also made perfect sense that by dieing on the cross, Jesus proved the point that in the garden, the first lie by Satan, that God is selfish, holding back things from mankind, was false. That alone is enough to throw out the entire case, because all of the accusations of Satan are based on a deception now proven wrong. Think of it this way, if a piece of property is obtained by a false pretense, in court, it would go back to the previous owner. In this situation, we are the “property” obtained by false pretense, and now with Jesus and His selfless giving up of His life on the cross, and continual forgiveness and love, that false pretense was fully demonstrated as false. God is not selfish, He is the opposite, He is love. I got that, but what I didn’t get was the rest of the story. This is so totally God, when He does something, it means far more than just one thing, it ripples and echos truth and goodness in all different directions. The wrong that was done was not a simple theft, the wrong that was done in this court scenario is sin, and the wages of sin is death. If it were just theft, the wronged person could forgive the theft, and he himself would simply suffer the loss of what was stolen. In this situation, with the wrong being sin, and the wages of sin is death, the wronged Person can forgive that wrong, but only by suffering the wages of the wrong, which is death. The wages of theft forgiven is loss of the stolen item. The wages of sin forgiven is the loss of the life of the one who is forgiving.
I don’t know if you can follow that, but it was a very neat piece that I had been missing. Now it all makes logical sense, that is why He had to die, at least one of the reasons. The other reason was to show the most pure expression of love, which is being willing to lay your life down for someone. When I was a little kid, maybe kindergarten to 4th grade, somewhere around there, I called out to God, what is this love thing, how can I know if I love someone. His answer was clear, if you are willing to lay your life down for someone, then you love them.
Oh Paul, So Stuck In Your Ways
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Relationships on March 29, 2014
I have been working through the daunting task of reading the writings of Paul. He was used to spread the gospel to so many, and so far, but I have to say, that he should have set himself aside and his deeply engrained ways aside so he could simple preach Christ and Christ alone. If he were just to echo all that Jesus said and did, if only. But he does not, in fact for some reason in his writings he is often speaking things in direct contrast to what God said in Genesis, where God said “it is not good for man to be alone”, and indirectly, “Go forth and multiply”.
Specifically I am reading through 1 Corintians 7, and there is much said that I can not get on board with. I understand that there is much that can be inferred into writings that is not there in the first place, but I can not help but get the feeling that there is a measure of arrogance as Paul speaks of marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7:1 he starts by saying “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman”. Now maybe I am reading it wrong, maybe Paul is saying that they wrote to him saying it is good for a man not to touch a woman, and then he was addressing that, but without the quotes, it is left looking like Paul is saying this to them in response to the letter Paul received. But here comes the touch of arrogance that starts weaving in; 1 Corinthians 7:5-9:
Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
I see parts of this as completely reasonable, and who am I to say that being able to be alone without issue is not a gift from God, but to say that it is only the lack of self-control that is a reason for a man and a woman to be married, that is not truth, as God himself said “it is not good for man to be alone” and then He created Eve for Adam as a helpmate. Now people joke that in the garden, perhaps it was because Adam was looking at the animals a little funny (read, burning with passion), that God decided to create Eve, but that is not what is said. I believe there are many reasons that it is good for a man to be married to a woman. Just as God said, a helpmate, yes, I can absolutely say that my wife is the biggest human helper I know in my life. She takes care of so many things, and with us working together so much more can be accomplished, yes, even so much more can be accomplished for God.
I was accepting of being alone for the rest of my life, but God knew better. He knew I needed someone, even though it was not apparent yet. I had not gotten seriously sick before, been without work before, bought a house before, or had a child before. God knew what He had in store for me, and he knew I could not do it alone, and so He chose the perfect match for me, a self proclaimed freak, an oddball, so unique I could not relate with others. I think differently, I act differently, I relate to people differently, and I see things differently than the majority of people I have met in this world. He found a beautiful woman who would stand by me and support me no matter what.
I guess my main point is, people are not perfect, no matter if they have writings in the bible or not. Paul was far from perfect, in fact, I have referred to him as a pompous ass at times, and other things. He is human, God touched his life, but he is still him. He has to fight against who he was brought up to be, and God used him and his strengths for much good, but it did not mean he did not have a bunch of worldly funk still attached to him that he has to fight against to keep God’s word and heart flowing without being over colored by him, a legalistic, hard, emotional guy. This is a powerful lesson for all of us as we walk with God. Never think anyone is perfect, except for God and Jesus Christ. I am not saying to not trust anyone, but I am saying never get to the point where you treat everything that a person says as 100% perfect, unless you are talking directly to God or Jesus. You must weigh what you hear, with the character of Christ, you must know Jesus that well, the heart of God. If you don’t, then you risk being tossed by the waves, no matter who is making the waves.
The concept that the bible is infallible, is in itself a powerful deceptive tool. It was written by men, God is reflected in there, but so are the ways of men, and written on the pages of the bible are the historical accounts of the horrible concessions God had to make, when there were only bad concessions open. God’s plan was not genocide, murder, theft and death. It was to make a place for a people who were to be a light on a hill, showing God’s love to the world and teaching people, ushering them into God’s way of living, the way He created His people to live, and ushering them into the knowledge of who God is, and how He wants the best for every one of His children on the face of the planet, the entire human race.
Talking To People
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, Relationships on March 29, 2014
Meet with them where they are at, walk with them, or ask if they would like to walk with you. If they don’t want to walk, ask if it would be ok if you were to sit with them, etc. The worst that could happen is they say no, or say yes and not mean it, or resent it. Be open and honest. Have a goal, but don’t think you can convince or coerce them into thinking or believing anything. Be willing to share perspectives, but meet them where they are at in their minds and hearts. Do your best to not override their perspectives, but search them out, find out why they think that way or believe what they do, and ask if you can present a different perspective, but not too aggressively. Harmless or innocent as doves, but wise as serpents, which I believe also includes patience.
Who Is This Jesus Guy
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life on March 26, 2014
Shortly before I was baptized God gave me a gift, a vision, a dialogue, more than I could have even imagined could happen. He showed me who Jesus was in an intense, direct, complete, and special way. It all started with a question, a question I had because of how my mind works, and how I had a hard time believing in something fully without understanding how it was possible. I simply could not wrap my mind around the creator of the universe, a non human being, having a human son through a woman on earth. How does that work? How can a reasonable, logical, methodical, scientific, and extremely skeptical person, actually accept something like that in this physical world. The unspoken scientific way is that anything that is real can be explained, and it can be explained by what we already understand. I had no foundation of knowledge that could render the possibility of Jesus, as the Son of God.
I believed in God. I knew that as fact. He had been moving in my life strongly in ways I could not understand, and I observed the reality of it. Things were changing and happening in ways that could only be reasonably explained by a higher power responding to me, a simple arrogant man. God answered prayers quickly, powerfully, and in ways that it would be foolish to think were a coincidence. God is there, and I knew it, no question. All creation does not make sense without God. That was my foundation, and a strong one. I was reading the Bible, and I was seeing the same character revealed in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, throughout all of the history recorded in the Old Testament. But this Jesus guy, the Son of God as a man — how does that work? I believed that it had to be so, but how? It didn’t make sense.
I started to pray, asking God, “who is this Jesus guy?”. He was clearly a big part of the picture. I read what the Bible says he is, but it does not make sense. I can’t have such a big gap in understanding. God surely could help me make sense of this nonsensical reality. I mean really, if Jesus is so important, why would God not help me understand it? So I prayed, and continued to pray. I knew God could do all kinds of things I did not expect or think possible. I didn’t let up.
One day I was talking to God, as I had grown accustomed to, while I was getting ready in the morning. The shower had become a sort of holy place for me, as I felt it was how I wanted to be before God, nothing to hide. I believe anything that needs to be worked out, any darkness in me, He is faithful to reveal it to me and while constantly forgiving, he will help me right any wrong. I know I have nothing to fear from God, simply by his character.
I did not believe the lie that the Jews did at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19-20), where they feared death from God because they did not know Him. I asked God that same question, happy, but pleading, my spirit crying out with whatever words came to mind at the time, basically, “who is this guy, how does he fit in the picture, how does it make sense?”. As I got into the shower, He showed me who Jesus was. It was unlike any experience I have had before in my life, one I am sure my words can only poorly render. You could say it was a vision, a vision of the beginning of human history all the way through to the end of time, but strictly with regard to who Jesus is. Calling it a vision is really a horribly incomplete way of describing the situation. It was more like an open dialogue, not with words, but with raw expressions of a person, being instantly understood and responded to, in a full memory transfer, but clearer than a man’s memory of the most vivid part of his life. When I say memory transfer, it is much like you might have seen on a sci-fi movie, where a higher intelligence has just downloaded memories into a human’s mind. If you have watched the Star Gate series, then you get the idea. But it was fully interactive, I was communing with God. Every question and every concern was immediately responded to with an understanding given to me. In that dialogue, I knew what I was seeing could not possibly fit in my mind. There was too much to remember, and too much to see. Maybe before the fall [of Adam and Eve], a human’s mind could take that information in with stride and remember it, but not a human in our current state. So we agreed that it was good enough to walk away from this experience with a shadow of a memory, if I could just know that knowing who Jesus is could be understood. In those moments of dialogue, it was made clear to me that there is much more than I had ever understood in this world. In this existence, there is the spirit realm, which is as real as matter, and it works with its own set of laws, just like the physical world’s laws (gravity, relativity, etc.). God is spirit, and He extended Himself into the flesh of Jesus here on earth. God was not the flesh, but God bound himself to flesh to form Jesus, this is why Jesus really blurs the boundaries between Himself and God the Father. This is how it is true to say that Jesus is God, and yet Jesus, the combination of God’s spirit and flesh, still prays to God the Father. In that dialogue, in my memory I came up with a reference to a scene in a movie, just to see if that was a good enough idea, if I understood correctly, that the concept of God extended into flesh was sort of like in the movie “The Abyss”, where the deep sea creature extended itself in this watery tendril and interacted with people in a deep sea vessel. I knew it was rough, and an incomplete parallel, but at least an idea, and we settled that this concept in the movie was as close as I would find on earth to being like how God was extended into the flesh of a man named Jesus. Throughout the entire dialogue with God, I was shown the history line, event after event, a complete accounting of Jesus through history, from before He was rendered in the flesh, to after, all the way to the end of time when He comes back to call his people home, and to put an end to all things that cause sin. And then it was done. All I could express at the time was something like “Wow, wow, Jesus IS the way!” Even then, saying those words seemed odd for who I know I used to be, and where I came from. I used to scoff at such a commonly said, and seemingly meaningless cliche phrase.
Shortly thereafter, with that confirmation and direct communication from God, I was baptized. I did not tell anyone about this for a long time. Eventually, many months later, I came to a reckoning, where I would have to decide how I would take what had happened. I could either let the memory fade and eventually discount it, writing it off like it was nothing, a fluke, a brain glitch, or I could be logical and embrace the real tangible experience that I had, where I observed first hand, God communicating with me, and responding to me telling me who Jesus is. I chose to let the experience change me. Dealing with the fact that as a person gets older, memories fade, what was clear becomes muddied, and maybe eventually lost, I decided it was time to record this event that would forever change my life and the lives of those around me. I cannot let something this important slip away. It is a talent,
and I am looking to invest.
Life Is Complicated, Writing Helps
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Health, Life on March 24, 2014
From so many directions God is saying to write. There are so many reasons to do it, but finding the time, and dropping the procrastination is hard.
Work and life in general is a lot more work than I expected, it is a lot more complicated, and a lot more stressful than I could have imagined. Anyone who has bought their first home and gone through all the processes involved in that life event can attest, things are not simple anymore. I can only imagine what having children would be like on top of all of this. I can’t help but relate to Billy Madison:
If I only knew. Now medical issues, mysterious ones with no known root cause. Intestinal troubles so bad that I was suffering for years, seems to have gotten better now, but maybe I am just used to the changes that came from it. Then a UEDVT, really? Is life really so stressful that after a really hard day, or a scary orthodontist appointment will cause the blood to clot in my body, risking my life?
For all the complications and stresses of this life, I think I need to write. I think that is just how my mind works, if I write about it, the stress and worry, and maybe even emotional aspects of all this will be reduced or eliminated. I have used it in the past, and it has really helped me through the worst situations I have ran into in life. But now I think I may even have something worth saying. In fact I know I do.
God is real and he has done some things in my life that are really worth writing about. I have experienced these things and it is very unscientific to dismiss what you have experienced with your own being and senses, as that is how all things are learned. Why should some observations be dismissed while others kept, are we really letting political correctness dictate what actual observations we can share and which we can not? Being that this is my personal blog on my domain, on my server, political correctness can go to hell. I will not let PC dull my communications.
Egypt Is Calling
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Work on March 18, 2014
Let me not turn back to Egypt, the old ways that I am used to, but let me fully embrace your ways. I hear you. I need your help. Every bit of the world screams a way that is not yours, how can I blot it out. How can I plug my ears so I can hear clearly only the right way, the true way which you have laid out! Thank you for your grace, let your staff guide me. The force which brought me here, let it keep my path strait. You brought me here for a reason, I know this, but work is killing me away from it.
New Job
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life on October 6, 2011
God has pulled some strings, and I am so grateful, and one thing to note is the stress. Even wonderful things can take their tole. I never knew this when I was younger, and even when people explained it, I was still not understanding how a person could have good things happen to them, and be stressed about it. But living life, you tend to realize when true things are true, and this is one.
It is around 4 in the morning, and I am having trouble sleeping, the day after the interview, I have too much buzzing around in my head, and I need to take it down on “paper”, or at least the best medium for the time .I type faster than I write on paper, and edits are so much easier, spell check is a very nice learning tool, and this way I have backups and can easily share the content if I choose to.
There is a lot of paperwork with a new job. I have the formal offer they sent, and then application, benefits, disclosure and the employee agreement. So much legal terminology and formatting. In this world, I understand why they need to legally bind you, and clearly outlined terms are very helpful, even if nothing more than a reminder of what you already know, but it is hardly a quick and easy process to work through.
I am really looking forward to the job, I mean, REALLY looking forward to working with them. I have never had an opportunity like this come up, one that is such a wonderful fit for how I work. It still blows my mind! But I think I need to take some time to unblow my mind, hence the private blog where I can simply dump my thoughts. There is such a deluge of new technologies for me to take in, I really do hope they have a good system to bringing me up to speed with what they have to work with. I suppose I have even learned a ton from simply the interview process. I just need to keep my sleep and good food and other stress relievers going, and take in the information as quickly as possible. Dear Lord, strengthen my body through this process, and bring me to use all the good tools you have taught me, and teach me some more. I need to learn as many stress relief tools as possible, as my body is not what it used to be. I now feel the stress as physical symptoms, how retarded. With God’s help, I can do anything though, so Lord, I am counting on you!
I will need to blog many more times I am sure, because more stuff will continue to cycle through my head as I go, so I will be back. But right now, I am going to first, Thank You God for the job!!!, now back to sleep. 70k, that still blows my mind…… I prayed for it though, freedom from this debt! He is totally listening, and totally caring!
So it seems I am back, still have some more stuff to take down, and Kathy got up horrendously early, at like 5:30am. I was still having trouble sleeping anyway. I was thinking about the Sabbath timing. I have not taken the time yet to talk to them about it, and I am not sure it would have been the right time to do it. I think it should be a fairly simple thing to work out, and I do not expect resistance to it, but the complication for me is how to treat the pager. I would not be working per-say, but on call if shit went down and services needed to be restored or addressed. These would be emergency types of situations. I have always looked at that as an OX in ditch situation. Not planning to work, but for the good of people, and I suppose business would benefit as well, so that we have jobs the next day, I would take care of what needed to be taken care of, and then call it good.
There is such a hard to define line between being a lawyer, following the letter of the law rather than the intended heart or purpose behind the law, and justifying doing something that might not be right to the intent of the law. Boy that is a hard one to explain at 5:30am. We could be stupid blind law followers totally missing God’s point for making the law, or we can take the time and effort to work it out with God, find out what He meant it to be, and go with that. Right now, as I understand it, I still hold to the Ox in a ditch perspective, it is doing good, it is working for the livelihood of other people, for their good, as to not ruin their means for living by causing the valid tools to not be able to be depended upon at all times. You could even go deeper and see if the tools are valid to be used apart from work on the Sabbath, but really as you cross that line, it turns into control and considering taking away other people’s choices for what you feel is best for them, and I do not believe that is a line that should be crossed. It would almost be like God putting a fence around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, preventing Adam and Eve from being able to eat from it. They now do not have a choice, and with the all or nothing reality I understand choice to be, this would negate choice, and without choice, it would negate love, because how much can a puppet love it’s creator. I believe He created us with an intent for us to have the capacity to love Him, our creator. By God’s own actions, He shows us that He is a God of love, and in fact, by His actions, He shows us what love looks like, and in turn what love is and how to love.
I will be stubborn to find truth, rather than taking the simplest mindless approach of the letter of the law, or the loophole approach of a lawyer. Intent and heart are worth searching for, as they are the expressions of one’s spirit, and if we say that the expressions of a being’s spirit do not matter, then we are worthless, and nothing but garbage by our own definition. I mean what is a person if you take away their intent, their will? They would have no direction to make a choice, no more than a rock or plant does.
Beautiful Day, Beautiful Wife!
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, Photography, Relationships on June 21, 2011
This is the view from my office on a sunny day.
Yesterday was a wonderful day (2011-06-20)! Kathy and I have been going through some hard transitions, hard choices, a lot of work, and a lot of stress, so we needed a day to play. It started out being one of those rare sunny days, blue sky, warm wind, just beautiful. Anyone who knows Seattle knows how rare those are. Right now we live in Shoreline, a beautiful neighborhood with trees, near a beach, in the view of the sound, and lots of well kept yards. From our living room area we see a full flower bed, in full bloom. God had really blessed us with a beautiful place to live! I do hope we can stick around for a while.
When Kathy made it home, we decided it would be best for us to get the hell out of the house! We decided to head down to the Edmonds waterfront, the first place we started to really get to know each other, and also the place I proposed to her, well also I believe we went down there for a while on our wedding day, after our wedding if I remember correctly. So we have some history there.
Kathy at Edmonds Waterfront
I brought my camera, the trusty little Cannon PowerShort SD600, which has served me well these many years. It still surprises me how good of a camera it is, with very clear shots, minimal grain, and a decent resolution. Eventually I do want to upgrade my camera, to something more than a point and shoot. A full on digital SLR (maybe a Nikon D3100) is what I am looking forward to getting, and we are slowly saving money so I can pick one out eventually. It will have a dual purpose. Since Kathy is going to be starting to do freelance soon, she will need a good photography source, and I can be that source, as long as I have a high enough quality camera. I have also wanted a chance to take some more professional shots, and many of the features I am needing for that are not possible with this point and shoot camera. I would like to be able to even sell some photos if possible.
My beautiful wife, Kathy.
We picked a perfect time to head down, the lighting was wonderful and it was warm enough I could run around in just a t-shirt and sweats. We ended up roaming from the ferry dock all the way up to the dog park at the other end. I was stuck on the idea of checking out all the beautiful plants that were in bloom and I wanted to hang around until sunset. Eventually we got tired of wandering around, and it was getting close to when the sun would duck behind the clouds above the mountains, so we just sat down near the water, talking, and watching the fish jump. I was having a lot of fun with the lighting from the sunset, and pulled a few really neat shots off with my beautiful wife as my subject.
A nice reflection shot off of Kathy's glasses.
Today is not quite as nice, but nice enough to leave the windows open, which is a very nice change. Baby (our cat) is going insane wanting out every door and window she sees, and constantly whining while I am trying to work. I am looking forward to more fun in the sun this summer, maybe even some vacation time. With the future so unknown, and unpredictable right now, it is not really something we can plan for like many people do, but God will provide, yes, even for our enjoyment. We will see what happens, life is good, and God is great!
Good Works?
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life on June 17, 2011
I was just reading the bible this morning, and after completing John, Jesus’ words echoed in my head, as He said in several different ways
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
It should be very simple to ascertain that when Jesus repeats Himself several times in several different ways, especially in the critical time just before He was betrayed and gave Himself over to be executed, that it is very important. It is also important to note that moments earlier He said:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34, 35).
I believe that this “new commandment” He gave is to add back the lost frame of love that all the commandments were intended to have from the beginning, and all of these commandments He is referring to should be framed in this same love for one another.
On to my main point. I decided to head back to Matthew, and read all of Jesus words, searching out what His commandments were, so that I can keep His commandments in the most real and practical way that I understand and have the ability to do. So I read through “The Beatitudes”, which I have come to understand are more of a section of speaking where Jesus gives the true orientation of God, His kingdom, and His people. It is not a list of things to do, or I would quickly go find someone to morn, try and find a way to become poor in spirit, or find a situation where I could become persecuted for righteousness, and insulted because of Jesus, and that just does not make sense. Orientation of the hearers is very important, and so Jesus blesses them with the revelation of the true reality, quite opposing to what they have been shown by the world they lived in at that moment.
The first section that looks to be an actual command is Matthew 5:16, where He says:
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven”
So how do I put this into practice? What good have I done? What good works? I have been studying for some time and have learned that God is at work all around us, all of the time. I am blessed to have been able to see God powerfully at work around me each time He has shown me, and He has sown me several times. But that is His work, not mine, I did not do it, but I was graced to see it. I do my best to join Him where ever I see Him at work, but so often those are not public activities, but more of private situations and conversations with random people. I do help out with the church website for Edmonds Adventist Church (edmondsadventist.org), and I also put the Weekly Sermon Podcast and other special series up online. I also do this blog, and I do have some mention of God in it, and what ever else comes to mind that I am working through with Him or in life. I think that is as close to this first commandment that I can get right now. I am not doing it for myself, at least I do not think that I am. I really do hope that if someone were to read the things I write, that it will do them some good, maybe bring them to think, and it would be totally cool if people would look to God and thank him for something that they got in any relation to something I did.
On to the point where I turn what I have done to God, for His glory. I enjoy being able to make available the sermons and special series from Edmonds Adventist Church. It is a blessing to me to be able to put these things up online knowing that God can use it for His will, if He chooses to do so. It is exciting, and priceless to hear that God has used some of the things I put online, to change or better someone’s life, where they were able to move forward with God in some way, or forward in life in a good way. This is one of those “treasures” that no one can steal, it will never rust, and moths will not destroy it. It is one of those “treasures in heaven”. It is a blessing to me, and I pray it is a blessing to others. It is exciting to join God where He is at work, and I do know that He is at work in the Edmonds Adventist Church, that is why I am there.
Keep your eyes open for where God is at work, and then join Him where you find Him working. It is not easy, it takes a lot of work, time, and willingness to change, but most good things are not easy, and take a lot of time and effort. The cool thing is, nothing can ever take it away from you, it will never get old, these joys will not need an upgrade in the future in order for them to be of any use, they will never burn up in a fire, and you can never loose them. It still seems very odd for me to look at things this way, but I would just suggest you try it.
We Are Screwed!
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Values on August 26, 2009
Did you know that those who intend to break the rules and laws set about today are not afraid of digital rights management? Did you know that a person who is accustom to breaking the law and shooting people with a gun will not be worried about a new gun law? Do you think a rule is going to all of a sudden mean anything to someone who cares nothing about the law in the first place? Did you know that any encryption can and will be broken, any copy protection will be thwarted and it is guaranteed to be a level playing ground shortly after any encryption or copy protection is invented? Did you know I could do anything on the internet with full knowledge that no one can track me because organizations do not cooperate or work together? Did you know that anyone could do that if they knew enough?
Where does that leave us? If less and less people believe in God, who will settle all accounts, and bring about people to experience their own values, then everything is ok, as long as we can get away with it, righ? If all the rules in the world can be gotten around at some point in time, and people only care about getting caught or not, then how can order be kept? Crime and punishment, yay, how far do you think that can really keep things going? One police officer per person, maybe that would work, but who would police the police, because I am sure there are just as many law breaking law enforcers as there are law breaking people in the general public, percentage wise. Don’t you think we would run out of money fairly quick to pay all of the law enforcement? Throw them all in prison or jail, someone might say. Do you know how much money that costs just to keep those going? Don’t you think something is missing from our equation, because if you really think it out, and follow how things are going, it does not quite work out.
I think at some point maybe some focus should be put on teaching people why it is best to follow the rules. Do you know why the rules are the way they are, or where they come from, or even why it is best to do things a certain way? I am exploring that myself. It seems that somewhere along the line, love and truth come into the picture, along with justice and good. I am no hippie, and I have a very different idea of love than what I have been hearing the world scream since childhood. I had to take some time to define things in my life, like sex, love, feelings, truth, right, wrong, and the differences of each one. I had most of them confused, and wrongly connected to each other, some leading me to another, and in wrong orders. Without God in my life, or in my world view, I think it would have been really hard or impossible to define a lot of these points. Love is most simply defined at its most pure by this, if you are willing to die for someone, then you love them. Love is not a feeling or an accident (falling in love is a little off), it is a choice, and feelings are involved, but feelings should not be your lead, or you will eventually fall out of love, and then leave. Feelings are wonderful, but they should not guide your life any more than which way the wind blows. Steering back on course, I think we take so much for granted. We are living in a world that is graced by the benefits of principalities and values and we have forgotten where it all originated. If each of us would only get a glimpse of what the world would look like if everyone held our own values, we would have to rethink things a bit. We need to know where we have come from, the origin of the good laws we hold, and we need to understand that we came from God, who designed and created us for a purpose, who knows what is best for us as a master mechanic knows his engine, and has graced us time and time again with priceless information on how were were intended to function, how things were meant to be and be done, and we should be able to make the clear connection that when things are not done the way they were intended to be done, we run into problems, ultimately leading to destruction.
Hah, as if I have all the answers. I don’t, but I would hope that people would take a moment and think about it before they have no other choice and the clear natural results come knocking.
The Importance of What We Don’t Know
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Values on August 4, 2009
It is good to acknowledge what we know, but we damn well better acknowledge what we don’t know and hold it to equal value. If we hold what we know as more important that what we don’t know, we are holding tight to such a tiny sliver of understanding and perspective, we are quite likely screwed. We would be delusional and believe that what we know is the most important things to know, and that anything we do not know is of little consequence, without anything valid to back that belief up. We would have little encouragement to learn what we do not already know because we already know what is important, and it takes effort to learn. I would also speak from experience that learning things we do not know reveals things that we believed that were not correct in the first place, and that is a painful process, but a needed part of growing as a person. I would also state that learning something new, something that we do not already know is also quite uncomfortable. If you noticed, I just listed a bunch of things that grate against our selfish desires. We want to know important things, not be missing them, because it makes us feel important. We want to sit back and effortlessly do what ever we want, effort is not attractive to us. Who relishes feeling pain of any sort, we want to live a pain free existence, for some of us that is a major goal in life. Most of us hold high a lifestyle of comfort, we would rather our seats not be lumpy, or that we be cool on a hot on a summer car trip, and dread the though of being sticky at the end of a hot sweaty day. All in all, our selfishness, if given into, would totally prevent any growth, except for the uncontrollable things that happen in day to day life, and even then we hate, fear, and resist that.
Another aspect that plays into this is the fact that in play with our selfish desires, we believe what we want to believe and turn a blind eye to anything that contradicts it, depending on our level of selfishness. If we live a life holding highest the things we do know, and what we don’t know is unimportant, we will build a life on what we know, and as time goes, our vested interest in what we know will grow and grow, we may even write books on what we know. How much greater would we then defend what we know, even if all logic and truth point to us being wrong. We would turn to manipulation, sabotage, control, and other means to smash out anything that would contradict us in our world. That is another end that would totally suck, because it would mean you have grown the least, and end up being the least logical, and most emotional about what ever you believe in, no matter how devoid of truth it is. I have seen this too much, it makes me upset at times when I see people like this. They tend to also be the loudest, most publicized, as they try and convince people to believe them, and that they are right, because in their selfishness, that is what they want.
What percentage of everything there is to know do you say you have? Think about it. I would argue an unprovable argument that we would be dealing with infinity when measuring everything there is to know, but for argument sake, say there was a cap, we will put it at everything that everyone in the world knows about the functioning of the universe and everything in it. If you were super conceited and delusional you might say you could know at this point in time 50% of everything. Now with it in those terms, which is more important, what you know, or what you don’t know? In what areas of understanding would you assign that part you do not know, and really how would you know? isn’t that sorta the bummer dealing with what you don’t know, you also do not know what areas of knowledge or understanding you can assign it? I would argue that the odds are high that as a child to where you are now, you have not been lead to learn the most important things in life, considering how common it is to find people asking questions relating to that all the time. I myself have asked what the purpose of life is, I have even asked God to tell me a real reason to live, something that is worth something. Breathing for breathing’s sake is worthless, I would even argue that fun and pleasure are worthless and fleeting, they are a part of life, but that is not enough for me to live for.
If we could just realize, that it is of very high importance that we value what we do not know, equally with what we do know, then perhaps we could grow. I think selfishness is at the core of it. How do we deal with that one…. Perhaps that is where God comes in. Love is the opposite of selfishness, and maybe we just need to see more of Him, and that will help subside the selfishness so that we can grow. We only live 100 years, few even that long, and yet fewer past. I want to grow as much as humanly possible in the breath that God has given me, for his will, because that gives life meaning and worth.
What is Infallible?
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life on December 9, 2008
We are the Israelites telling Moses to go up and deal with You… We want the bible to tell us all truth, but that is not enough, we need You!
We want to believe and tell people that the bible is written practically by Your hand, and is infallible, because we can not bare dealing with uncertainty, or with having to ask for Your help to find the truth. We are afraid of the uncertain, perhaps we are afraid to talk to you directly. Maybe we want to feel bigger, so we say these words are perfect and directly written by You through the prophets. We want to be able to say we have all the answers for you, here read in this book. But in reality, we do not have all the answers, the book is just written by people who love you and worked with you directly, but they are just imperfect men, and imperfections reflect in the words they write. Perceptions that the writers had, those were their perceptions, formed by the society they lived in at the time.
Point being, we need YOU God, to be with us through all growth, learning, and reading, yes, even the bible. That is why some people can memorize word for word, and quote so much from the bible and be empty of truth, because like You said, You yourself are truth.
How Easily We Forget
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on September 17, 2008
Current mood:confident
I wrote the following mid day sometime last week. I was having a hard day and being discouraged for one reason or another. Then I got to thinking, I have no reason to worry, to be discouraged about anything. God has gotten me through so many situations. He has taken care of me every step of the way, with boldly answered prayers, things that people do not believe when they hear it. Then my mind went back to the Israelite people, how they were taken out of Egypt with all kinds of undeniable acts of God, the Red Sea was even parted for them, and they were lead by a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. God was with them, right there, but around every corner, they would start to grumble, forgetting that God has them all taken care of, every need will be granted. So I did a quick brain dump, here it is:
I want to spend the rest of my life remembering you Lord. It seems that over time all amazing things, all of the unforgettable things, all the things of greatest importance, they fade, they loose their value, their hold on our lives. This world degrades things, though the breath of life continues to flow against the destruction of this world, life is resilient, sin, or the knowledge of good and evil has tainted us, so that it is only because of the strength and love of God that we are still able to exist. I will put up pictures on the wall, write books or journals, read the bible, fill my life with all the things that show Your work in my life, so that I do not forget. Please God, give me the strength to do this, it is your life, your love that flows through me, I call on that Love that lives inside me, I call to you God who loves us. Let us never forget, not the walls of water, the water springing from the rock, the food from the sky, the miracles, the answers to prayer, the direction of our life, the direct speaking into my heart, the showing of unsearchable things. Show us how.
Jonathan Can’t Come Out To Play
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, MySpace Blog, Relationships on June 17, 2008
Current mood:busy
Ok, it has been forever since I have last blogged, but I need to write something. Life has been continuing day after day. I am still heading my small group at the church, and attending another. I knew I needed the weekends so I moved my small group meeting to Tuesdays. I have realized that without structure or any sort of plan for the small group, I loose my confidence. I need to have a general direction and spend some time working in that direction myself before I feel comfortable asking people to come to the group, that should be a given, but somehow after the material Larry provided ran out, I have become lost. I have fleeting moments of inspiration, but only fleeting. I am recognizing that I do not put time with God high enough on my priority list. Part of me knows that spending time with God is a major blessing, He will help me find my center, my inspiration, my direction, and guide me through anything I go through, but there is another part of me that seems to be pulling in the other direction, the resistance, that same feeling one might get when approached with vacuuming or doing the dishes. I will call that resistance the flesh, the worldly part of me that tries to hold me back from doing what is best, from doing things the way they were designed to be done. I am slowly having my mind and heart changed, as I realize that I really want to spend that time with God. But it is so different than the way the rest of the world works, everything else seems to have very clear and direct results, so I find myself doing all of these other things before I finally get around to spending time with God. Day by day I feel the void growing as I let that time slip away. The verse “Abide in me and I will abide in you” keeps echoing through my head, and I know it is true, why is there any resistance? Maybe my motivation is wrong. My mind is cloudy, I can’t seem to figure this out. Maybe spending time with him will give me what I need to figure this out…. Sounds like a good idea to me, He has always helped me in the past.
Part of my problem these days is that I do not give myself enough down time, or alone time. Back in the day, I had not even recognized the need for down time or alone time, because other than work, that is all I had, sitting around watching TV, or reading once every few years. I had nothing going on. It is taking me a long time to recognize and admit that these are valid needs, now I need to find a way to bring a little bit of it back. This is a scary proposition though, something has to be cut back, and then your mind equates that to devaluing that thing, or person, or situation. For example, maybe less time with Kathy, or cut a group meeting out, or maybe some of my responsibilities at the church… I suppose I just need to evaluate where I am spending the most time.
My Beautiful Mental Exhaustion
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on February 4, 2008
Current mood:drained
I want to start out thanking God for the energy and perspective he has given me. Today has been a very busy day, and I have needed every bit of energy I can get. Yesterday was great, I managed to get a lot done, and spend some time with Kathy in the process. Later that night, after I got home, I went to finish some things up at my computer. I heard this strange crash outside, and with the sound having a strange familiar tone to it, I decided to poke around outside to see what was up. When I got out there, everything seemed in order, there was a person down the road to my right pulling out of his driveway, and no traffic either way besides that. I didn’t think much of it, but wanted to check my Jeep out to make sure it was alright, I mean it was there and parked, not smashed down the road like last time, but I had to make sure. As I went around the vehicle, I noticed debris on the road and I knew someone had some sort of an accident, so I was thinking to myself, I wonder who the poor guy is who smashed up their vehicle. As I walked up along the driver’s side door, I noticed that the wheel was turned, and I didn’t remember leaving it turned that much, and something didn’t look right with the front driver’s side corner of the car. Well, I took a closer look, and it seemed that I was the poor sap who had his car smashed into. This is the second time in a few months that my parked car has been ran into, in fact, the reason I am driving around a newer Jeep now is because, by the grace of God, my last Jeep was totaled while parked in front of the house. As I checked it out, and called the police, a small swarm of neighbors came to see what was up. I took pictures, and the damage consisted of some bent suspension parts, steering linkage, smashed bumper and some body damage. It is not drivable, with the wheels turned strait, it looks like it is trying to take a right and a left turn at the same time, that would not get me very far… Anyway, by the end of the night, the police had apprehended the vehicle and suspect, but I was not given much in the line of details, so I will have to get a completed report from the police department. I did hear that my vehicle was the second that the guy hit that night, and that was why the office appeared in about a minute of me finishing up my 911 call.
All in all, I still had a sincere smile on my face that entire evening. The neighbors and officer were kind and helpful, and I thanked the officer for his help. Though I am not troubled by the incident, or the fact that I will be without a vehicle for a while, I still am going to be pushing extra paperwork, and have to wrangle my insurance as they process this new claim. It is a bit draining. I already have a lot going on, so it seems I am now in training to handle more…. thats good. Now I am wondering if I am getting to a point here… Nope, don’t think so, no real point, except maybe I feel drained. You know, 4 accidents in under one year, that just seems like too many to me, maybe a little unusual, and only one of them was possibly my fault, the others were when the car was parked, and I was rear ended on I-5.
There is good that comes from this. I now get to spend some time with other people as they drive me around. I am gaining all kinds of experience with the courts, insurance companies, and the overall process of an accident. Oh, and here is a good one; one by one I am taking bad drivers off the road. Another really good thing I am seeing is that when an accident happens, people come out, and with sincerity, they care whether or not you are ok. Even my mother, after borrowing her new car, and having the front end of it removed, she cared how I was above concern for the vehicle. I think I needed to see that.
I just thank God for his perfect care for me. He knows what is important, and he takes care of me. My possessions are not so important, they come and go.
Jonathan’s Thoughts on Ephesians
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, MySpace Blog, Relationships on January 23, 2008
Current mood:refreshed
I am slowly working my way from the beginning of the bible to the end of the bible, and I just finished Ephesians today. Here are some thoughts that came to mind when reading Ephesians 5 this morning:
Come to understand these ideas of your own heart guided by the Holy Spirit to see that they are good, and so that you do them out of love for God, not simply out of obedience of the rules for the rule’s sake. Rules and guides passed on from one person to another are but empty without the understanding that the Holy Spirit gives, and just as children grow to become adults, and realize the wisdom behind the rules they were taught, we too must grow in Christ, and gain the understanding, to build our foundation on Him, with his guidance. Each one of us, if seeking God with all our heart, mind, body, soul, and strength, will find God, and his good will, and we will be guided to do what is good and right in His eyes. We need but ask, and we shall receive.
I must say I liked Ephesians, it was well written. There is a lot to be said for being given time alone to think and spend time with God, even if it is in prison.
Life is Simply Complex
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, MySpace Blog, Relationships on January 13, 2008
Current mood:anxious
First I would like to say, love is so much more than just a choice, so so much more! It is a feeling, it is an action, it is loyalty, it is based in truth, it is working through problems with a life long determination, never giving up. Love is so many things, and for me it is a way of life. Though I am not perfect, and in some ways, I am a hypocrite because I am not perfect. But I do love, and I will spend my entire life growing in love, working toward showing agape love. I pray that God strip me of my selfishness, my arrogance, my comparisons, and my feelings of superiority, because those have no place in a life of love. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. I do however plan to always learn and grow, so that I might gain footing every day. As the world and its values push back, with God, I have faith that I can grow.
Now that I got that out of the way, which was something that has been bothering me ever since I posted my first blog touching on what love is, I feel much better. As I move forward in my relationship with Kathy, I am learning many new things, seeing myself in many new lights, and seeing how truly human I am. I am weak at times, I am an empty shell of a man at other times. As I move forward in love, my flaws seem to have bright spotlight on them, and now I can see so many things that I need to work through in order to grow. Day after day, I am reminded of how Kathy will love me no matter what I approach her with. I am filled with confidence in who God made her to be, and how through God, nothing is impossible to resolve. It is not always easy, but what truly good things in life are easy.
I feel like I have finally woken up after 7 years of… I don’t know what, and for the last year or 2 I have been back and growing. Not to say my 7 years in Walla Walla were a waste, they were not, I have made many friends, and seen how the world values things. I have lived on my own, and I have lived with people. I have been through so many different situations, I have seen the worst in people, and then I have been able to understand it. I have been given the gift of forgiveness and have been able to let go of so many hurts in my past, not forgetting them, but they no longer have power over me and my actions and feelings today. Enough of this tangent, I am here now, so now what?
Now what? It is a little late for me to be asking myself that now isn’t it… I am moving forward. But still I feel the need to ask myself that question on a day to day basis. In this life there are so many things to do, so many choices, which one do I make, and what steps do I want to take to get there. What do I want? I want a life of love, life foundation in God, and to make people laugh. I also want to develop the talents God has gifted me with, like art, and to explore my love for music by actually learning a musical skill. I want to build strong friendships with the people around me, and to treat everyone with a love that resembles the love God has for us.
My to do list is growing, and time is passing by, but not without me jumping on and doing as much as I can in the time I am given, and with the ability I have been gifted with. Maybe I should start by doing the paperwork on my desk, and clearing all of that off.
Jonathan’s Time off and Christmas Ramblings
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, MySpace Blog, Relationships on December 17, 2007
Current mood:happy
Today I am sitting here, on the first day of the week I am taking off work, and I am thinking. I am thinking about all kinds of things, so many things. One of them is the upcoming trip I am taking with Kathy over to meet her parents in Idaho. I wonder what her parents will think of me. Well, what ever the case, I will love them, thats just who I am. I am looking forward to spending this time with Kathy and her family, seeing the dynamics of her with her family. This is going to be fun. I should probably start to pack and get ready for the trip.
Oh yeah, I suppose this is blog worthy, I am no longer single. Kathy has been my best friend this year for some time, and I excited to have been given the chance to get to know her. She is a wonderful woman, and I am blessed to be able to spend time with her. While I was new and still getting to know people in the church (Edmonds Adventist Church), I was starting to work in the back on the computer during the services, and Kathy was there helping me every step of the way. She has a strong and growing relationship with God, which is so wonderful to see and be a part of. I have been looking for someone who puts God as number one in their lives because I believe that with God being the center of your life, everything else just seems to fall into place. Being that no one is perfect, I believe it is so very important that we have God in our lives, and seek to continue to grow and mature with Him, and He will continually work with us to overcome our shortcomings and help us learn the hard lessons in life that we need to learn. I can not put into words how much God has made a difference in my life, so now I recognize how cool it is to see that in the life of someone else.
Another thing that has been on my mind this morning is my computer. It is more and more sounding like a Hoover vacuum cleaner. There are some fans that are showing their age by making all kinds of strange whining noises. I opened the computer this morning to check things out and I pulled the graphics card out and the CPU fan, hoping I could find some replacements at a local computer store, but no luck. While I was in there, I noticed something that no one really wants to see, I have 2 capacitors that have pushed fluid out the top. I have seen this on servers before, and they still worked for years after that, but it is disconcerting to see that on my prized motherboard. So now I am faced with a possible forced upgrade soon. I have mixed feelings about that. I mean, “YAY” for a faster newer computer, but darn the fact that it costs money. God will provide what ever I need, he always has, and always will.
I have started actually trying to give gifts this Christmas. I would love to get gifts for everyone I knew, but I am doing what I can, and keeping my eyes and ears open for some real needs, and giving where I can. Even if it is just for a few select people, where I have seen a need, that is cool. But one thing that I have found out is that, wrapping presents is hell! By the time I get done with a box, I stand back and see just a mass of paper and tape. It took me something like an hour for just 2 boxes. I am forced to grapple with the idea that I just blow at wrapping gifts. Yet somehow it was fun… strange.
There are so many other things for me mull over today, so I can figure out what I can fit in. Like changing the oil in the Jeep, installing the subwoofer in the Jeep, working on the Christmas letter, working on the cruse control buttons, finish up with church computer and lights notes, play with Ableton Live, setup a business website on grendeltech.com, work on resume, finish some books, and a letter to my grandmother. Now I can add another task of keeping my eyes out for a good new computer to replace my old Hoover. Oh, and I need to send a note to my bible study group to let them know I will be gone this weekend, that’s fairly important. I know there are plenty of other things that I need to do, but one thing at a time, no worries here. It is so nice to know and be able to rest in the fact that God has all of the truly important issues worked out already, and he is working in my life so that it may be used for good.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas time! Travel safe, and have fun! You are all in my prayers. God bless.
Scars of Love?
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on November 23, 2007
Current mood:contemplative
I pull up my sleeves to take a glance at the goose bumps on my arm, inspired by the beautiful music, and I look. I see scars, so many of them, cuts along my wrist, and look back in my mind, and see the immense pain I was in when those marks were made. How careless was I, to take this gift of life for granted, this beautiful gift, and want to throw it all away. How did I get to that point, how could I not see… As tears well up in my eyes, I start to pray out loud “Lord, I am sorry, I had no idea, I didn’t know..”. Back in those days, I had no clue who God was, or really grasped how much he loves us. I did not see anything as a gift, but a curse. And now I am left wondering, how could someone reach a child, and teach them, using their own limited understanding and desire as a basis, and allow them to understand and grasp how much God loves them, how much life is a gift, even in this hurtful selfish world, life and so much more, are gifts from God. Can that really be grasped by someone so young? I think first we would have to be able to show them who God is, give them some way to understand His character. I think that something like this could only be done with the help of God Himself.
Then again, maybe I am looking at it wrong. Maybe just like when a baby comes into this world, it does not know all of this, maybe the timing is not so important. Am I trying to find a way to prevent pain in life? How then will we ever come to the point where we question all of the important things in this life? I am starting to look at all of these hard times in life as just growing pains, simply signs of growth as we learn life lessons. Being brought down to the point of needing at least one good reason to live, I must say was a big turning point in my life, one that I still look back on, and thank God for. That reason that God gave me will always stick with me, and it will stand out even brighter in the darkest times. Isn’t that truly something worth thanking God for?
God knows what needs to be done. He loves us so much that he is willing to single us out, and when we really need to focus on the most important things in life, he may take everything else away or out of the picture, just so that we can see, and ask the most important questions of ourselves.
Jonathan’s Guided Direction
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, Love, MySpace Blog, Relationships on November 16, 2007
Current mood:contemplative
Is love a choice? If its not, should it be?.. Shouldn’t it be? If love is something that you just “fall into”, like a hole, something hidden that if you run across it, you will fall into it, then what does that mean? Doesn’t that mean that you are letting your subconscious make your choices for you, some values or beliefs that have been ingrained in you as you were growing up. And what does that mean for your relationships? Say you keep on finding yourself attracted to people who abuse you, or use you, or any number of other things that are not good or right for your life. Doesn’t that mean you damn well better take a hold of yourself, and figure that stuff out before you wake up one day, look back on your life and see failed relationship after relationship in your past, and realize that they were all the same person. Maybe it is time to sit down and evaluate my inner beliefs, or what ever is inside directing me to the people I “fall for”, and make sure that everything is sound, make sure that my beliefs are based upon truth, and not some BS that I picked up somewhere when I was growing up. If love is something that you just stumble and fall into, wouldn’t that mean you could just as simply fall out of love? How scary is that for someone who is looking at marriage?
We are humans, we make choices. We are not, or should not be, just debris being tossed about in a sea of other people or circumstances in this world. We need to take the time to figure things out, so that we learn and grow, especially our core beliefs. I don’t plan on being just a ball getting tossed about by what ever waves come my way, what would that make me? Screw that, I am going to strive to grow, to find the direction I want to go, and with God’s help, I am going to plow through the waves of this life, like a ship with its sails set high. With God as my guide and teacher, I will not be lost in the sea of this world or its values.
These days, I choose to love, but it is never a bad idea to take a moment and examine yourself from time to time, just to make sure you have not unknowingly fallen into some rut. Living a life with your eyes wide open takes constant effort.
Children Like To Think They Know Everything
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on October 22, 2007
Current mood:cheerful
What would you do if you knew everything? You really can’t say, can you? Just as when you were a child, and did not know as much as you do now, you could not say what you would do if you knew more, you could not say how your perspective would be, or what would be right for you. How much of everything would you have to know before you could say what you would do if you knew everything? Do we need to know everything before we can accept it, that is a clear no, look at every situation in your life that you had to learn, you did not know, but you had to accept and work with it. I accept you, I believe in you, I love you, even though I do not completely understand you. How is it that we love, accept, and believe in so many things every day even when we know full well we do not know everything about it, we may not even understand it. But when we sit back and think about God, for some reason, we are stuck on trying to understand everything he does, his perspective, his reasoning for why this or that happened. Does this really make sense? Are we not just tiny children who know little, trying to figure out what we would do if we knew everything? Think about that for a while, think long and hard. Here is something that we might just be able to figure out, we can figure out human behavior, how we act, what drives us as humans, what our hangups are, and what we tend to do about them. Once we understand ourselves, then maybe, just maybe it will not be so hard to accept God, the truth of everything, even though we can not figure Him out. Heh, I just realized I am telling this to myself as much as anyone else.
Somehow this little line of thought, which is nothing new, came about this time as I was thinking about my children, and what I would teach them, how I would get them to understand and see the world as it really is. How can you teach children a perspective of the world, when they know and understand so little to begin with, when I can not even teach an adult. Is it weird that I can feel how much I would love my children, even when I have none? Ok, well, one day at a time, God will get me through every step, I just have to listen to my loving Father and trust him, because he knows so much more than I. Life is good!
Shiny Happy People?
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on October 19, 2007
Current mood:chipper
Here is something I ran across (not going to comment on where), but it sounded good, so here it is:
“My tattered heart, it beats once again. Even with all of the holes, the scars, the hurts from the past, life is being breathed back into me. Its all going to be ok, step by step every day, I am being healed, growing stronger, and headed in the right direction. Lessons learned, perspectives changed, so far to go, but I am not alone. The future is bright, bright with the hope of all the beautiful possibilities we see. “Everything is going to be alright, I am here for you, and you will never be alone.””
It is interesting how the writer started out talking about themselves, then it switched to “we”, and then “you”…
Hypocrisy, Mistakes, Trusting in God
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Values on September 10, 2007
Current mood:accomplished
Hypocrisy, an interesting term, and something I do not like. How does a person follow God’s guide? Am I a hypocrite? In order to tell if you are a hypocrite, I believe it may take a bigger scope of your life than you would normally see at a given time. I have just taken a step back and looked at my actions, and I think that I am being a hypocrite.
Here is the kicker, this is not a horrible realization! It is not a bad thing to realize that you have made a mistake, that is the first step to growing from it and possibly making it right. The reason it is not a horrible thing for me is that I have been praying about it for some time. I have asked God to be my guide in everything I do, including this situation. This is what God can do for you. I asked God to show me what would be right in his eyes, and he did. Now my part in this, just like every other time he shows me the path, I have to take it to heart and act on it, make the choice and make it happen.
The fact that I feel I have been a hypocrite is not something that scares me. We all have to keep in mind that we are not perfect, and above all else, we truly must realize that God loves us and cares for us even in these times when you are making a mistake. This is what we all truly must grasp in our relationships with God, no matter what happens, He is there, no matter what blunder or tiny mistake we make, He is there for us, we need only to call on Him. I believe shame and fear are our own doing, and the closer we hold to God, those aspects fade. God is forgiving, no matter what you do, if you come to him, he can make everything better, and you will be forgiven if you ask for it.
I went in with confidence, my fear fell away, I knew that God would guide me, and He is, I only have to listen, take to heart what I am shown to be good, and act accordingly. So this is what it is like to trust in God… I like it!
Jonathan’s Christian Beginnings
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on September 6, 2007
Current mood:calm
Out of nowhere, thoughts come into my head, like a conversation between two people, I think things over in my head, and my ideas and understandings are revised. Time and time again, as I work through things in my mind, I get these realizations, where I understand something just a little bit better, or something I have been wondering about all of a sudden makes perfect sense. Just yesterday I was thinking about religion, and how I used to look at it, and how it was the wrong way to look at it. From my point of view it was passed down to me by family and church as this set of rules, things that I could and could not do. It also included many things that I had to do if I wanted to be a Christian. I get the feeling that I am not the only one who had that idea. Now I have a totally different perspective, and I was thinking about how I had viewed religion in the past, and I realized that was not at all what it was suppose to be. Now I know it is about having a relationship with God, that is where it begins, that is where it always seems to begin. Here is a fragment of my thoughts as I jotted them down:
Its not the rules, the rules have nothing to do with it, my perspective changes, my desires change, and I just end up doing what I am impressed is the right thing to do. It just so happens that the rules are going along with what I am finding is right. But I have thrown away the rules, walked up to God, and asked him to guide me, that is the only way for me to go. To throw away these sick twisted dirty rags tainted by man’s hands, and to start over with God. I do not want a relationship with rules, I want a relationship with God. Do not let the rules of a given religion or the ways of man taint your view of God, who is perfect and good.
Now I must comment on that, I have held onto many rules, but only the ones where it says in the bible that God gave them to man. I am not saying that I did not break some of them, because I have, I am far from perfect. What I am saying is that it is a relationship with God which is the beginning, that is where we need to start. Following the rules does not come first, they are only a symptom of loving God and developing a relationship with Him. I do not follow any of these rules because I have to, I choose to follow rules because they are good and right, and I want to follow them.
Also, when I say “I have thrown away the rules”, I am meaning all of the rules put together by various members of the Christian religion that I believe have deviated from God’s good rules and plans he has laid out for us. I am now moving forward with a sincere interest in searching out God’s plans for us, and the guides he has laid out. Just as people have done in the bible, I am searching out his decrees and precepts.
Jonathan’s Growing Conscience
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Values on September 4, 2007
Current mood:relieved
I want to be able to look back and see the things that I have done, and say with full faith, I did what I believed was right, completely, in this situation. I mean, what is worth more, really? Money?, what people think of me?, my driving record?, or how I look back and see what I have done, and if I can feel good about my decision or not. That seems like a good clear choice to me. I can be cleaver any day, I can get what I want anytime I really want, I can do so many things to get my way. Temptation is everywhere, personal gain is so appealing sometimes, but I guess the question is, where are my values. I want to be good in God’s eyes, I want my will to be something that Jesus could look at and be ok with. I want to do what is best, I mean truly good for me and everyone around me, as in how God defines good, in every situation. I guess one could ask why. What is my motivation? That is a question I will have to answer some day, something I will have to figure out. I can’t really put my finger on why at the moment.
Jonathan’s Cream Filled Center
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Values on August 30, 2007
Current mood:tired
Today I just realized something, something truly great. Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by so many people and it has been a rare gift to find mature people, who do what they know to be right, despite the feelings they have, or what they “want” to do. It is painful, and very hard sometimes, but in this life we have gotten to a point where we know better, and are actually taking steps to make sure our futures are healthy, and not just our futures, but the futures of the other people involved as well. I am finding that my peer group seems to be getting things together, figuring things out, and realizing what is important. I feel I am arriving a little late, and I know I have a long ways yet to go, but I am learning.
I have had to make some decisions like this on a regular basis over the past year or so, and I can say that it is not easy. Maybe it is experience, all of these things in my past coming together painting a few more parts of the picture, so that I can see things just a little more clearly. But I think that is only a part of it. I have many of my friends to thank for connecting so many of the dots in my mind (you know who you are). I have such a long ways to go, but I am happy I have made it to the point where I can actually make decisions that are not driven by my selfish interests, but by what is right, what is best. I am not that strong yet, I feel that in some situations I was just a hair away from just going for it, letting my feelings take over and doing something I knew was not the right way to go, but God seems to fill the gap when I fall short, and He gives me strength when mine fails.
Tonight I am not quite leaping for joy, but I am overall happy with my situations. I would like to mention to anyone who might have the slightest idea what my vague rambling is about, if anyone needs to talk, I am here, with an open ear, and a caring heart. If someone is going through something and would like to talk, I would like to listen.
Jonathan’s Misguided Thread
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog on August 28, 2007
Current mood:annoyed
There is a lot weighing on my mind today. It is strange how one little thing can rattle you so much, almost like a chain reaction and next thing you know, you are looking far into the future and wondering how things are going to work out, questioning things that should not be questioned from so far away. Why must I worry about so many things at once… It was just a little problem… There are so many other things that are so much more important, I guess I have to keep that in mind. I thank God for giving me a foundation I can depend on, so that no matter what, even if everything is swept away, I can still stand firm. I just need to take that and hold onto it, never letting it go. It is so easy to get side tracked, to take your eyes off of what is important, to sink in the water that you were walking on just seconds ago. You may have all of this positive knowledge in your head, promises that you believe, yet somehow you let them slip through your fingers so often. Why must we sink so deep before we call out and grab on to the hand that has been held out the whole time.
Ok, that was dark enough, and I laugh at the little problem that rattled me so much, it will probably be just fine anyway. I am not going to mention what it was. It is sorta like the despair part of my mind threw a tantrum at being ignored for so long. If I were not to have written this, no one would have the slightest clue, not even those closest to me, that I was being bothered so much. It seems so dramatic when I put it into words, yet on the outside, I may look just a little annoyed. I guess that is just me.
Bits of stuff, unworthy of their own blog
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Business Ethics, God, Life, MySpace Blog, Relationships on August 16, 2007
Here are a few things that did not quite make it to becoming a blog, but I wanted to toss this stuff up here all the same. Some are conversations, others are just things I jotted down. None of it seemed special enough to put up into its own blog.
Sometime after July 29th, when I went to the Daft Punk concert:
Yes, the concert was a blessing, that’s right, being able to go to the Daft Punk concert was blessing from God, He knows how to take care of me. The only thing that comes to mind is that God is the DJ, mixing together all of the sound samples and notes of my life, and I got to say, I love the music! He is taking everyone and using them in his mix.
Wed Aug 08 08:36:42 2007, just chatting with someone:
[13:08] Jonathan: I don’t get it, why am I attracted to crazy?
[13:09] Jonathan: NM, I got it…
[13:11] Jonathan: I love extremes, blistering heat, dripping humidity, blasting wind, ground-shaking thunder, blinding lightning. Maybe I now am at the point where I realize, that stuff is cool, but that is not what I need to look for in a woman….
[13:29] Matt: it is the challenge
[13:30] Matt: or possibly, you like to fix things
[13:30] Jonathan: that could be too
[13:31] Jonathan: I like to help people, it has been my resolve since childhood, and maybe I see they need help, and I want to help, I always do
[13:32] Matt: yeah, i did the same thing with girlfriends…. get the crazies and try to help them then realize it was too much
[13:32] Matt: the problem with women is that if you attempt to fix them they wont stay fixed
[13:32] Matt: probably the same with men, but i never dated any
[13:33] Jonathan: yeah, they have to do it themselves, to what ever extent is possible
[13:33] Matt: word
[13:39] Jonathan: God’s teaching me tons of stuff, its cool
[13:40] Matt: how do you know?
[13:41] Jonathan: action and reaction, to the point of no chance of coincidence
This was just me “thinking out loud” in an email today:
My perspective is a little down cast the last day or so, but I know it is just temporary, and it will clear up.
I think God has some more teaching to do, and I have some more lessons to learn. One of the things I am dealing with is the feeling you get when you are ripped off by a mechanic. I hardly ever get to the point where I am filled with contempt for someone, but I think that situation really hit a sore spot, that spot where you finally get to the point where you get enough trust together, hold it out only to have it smacked out of your hands and fall to the ground shattering into a million pieces. Maybe I am over sensitive, maybe I should have known better, or maybe I didn’t handle it right. At what point do I take the situation into my own hands and get the mechanic to do what I paid them to do. For all I know, they may not have had any deception in mind, maybe they really thought what they told me was the real cause of the problem. Maybe I am just seeing it wrong. But one thing I know, I am not built to hate, I am not meant to hold contempt for someone, and I think that is what is bothering me so much, this foreign feeling that should not be there, it is being rejected. I think that is it, with God so strong in my life, those feelings are like poison, and my entire being is rejecting it.
Who am I to Judge
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Values on July 18, 2007
Current mood:annoyed
My thoughts during a situation this evening, I had to get them out of my head, they were distracting me:
Look at me, who am I! Truly, who am I! I am but a humbled mess of a man, crumpled in a pile, held oh so lovingly in God’s hands. Look at me again and ask yourself, who am I? How can I judge you? Do you fear the dirt you walk on, that it might judge you? Do not answer me with fear and anger, for my questions are out of pure innocent curiosity. I do not point my finger in judgment of you or anyone. I love you, why do you lash out at me? I love you all the same…
Obi-Wan, You Are My Only Hope!
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Relationships on June 29, 2007
Current mood:annoyed
I am back in Everett, I have been here since the beginning of this year. I have met up with old friends, many of them. Things change, I change, a little bit here and there, over the years it adds up, maybe I am a different person. I still love and care for people, I still love to have fun, I love to do new things, meet new people. My values have been strengthened, my direction chosen, I now know what I want, and I know what I do not want. And ok, maybe I grew up a little tiny bit, but not too much. I suppose there is one very big thing that has changed, I now have a strong faith in God. I know that may sound strange to some, it sounds great to others, and there are some that would be scared, or even angry. Before you take that and think that I no longer do this, or I no longer eat that, try asking me first, because it might surprise you. Let’s just say I don’t value all of these rules that man made up. I guess what I am getting at is that in this world that some say is overpopulated, in this city of nearly 100,000, I feel a bit alone. Don’t get me wrong, I am not crying myself a river, I am just a little annoyed. Where is everyone?
Well, I have grown tired of humoring my ex-girlfriend’s alternate personality, even though it is a bit amusing. I am going to get some reading done, I am half way through the bible, and have all but the first chapter of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” to read.
Lord, you are my only hope,
everything else washes away as the sand with the waves.
The things of this world come and go like the pulsing tide.
Lord, let me be content with what you have given me,
nothing matters more than you.
Random Thoughts – What Makes a Good Person
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in God, Life, MySpace Blog, Values on May 31, 2007
What makes a person a good person or a bad person, it is not just what a person wants, or what they desire (and yes children, a desire can be “not to do things”), it is what they are willing to do to get what they want, that determines if you are a good person or not. Are you going to do things you know are wrong to get what you desire, are you going to hurt someone, neglect something, lie, cheat, steel, rip off a company, do nothing when something needs to be done, or are you going to do what is right? Who are you going to hurt to get what you want today?
If you ever want someone to feel comfortable coming to you when they have a problem and need to talk about it, do not judge others. That is God’s job. Life tends to be so much better when you get out of God’s chair. People see when you judge others, and then they fear being judged by you, so they will not talk to you. I just realized this when I wanted to talk to someone about a problem I was having, and decided against it because I recalled how she talks about others. Well, I guess it is just between me and God for now (we talk all the time).